The Ocean is in Dire Need of Attention.
The Clock is Ticking...

The ocean spans over 71 percent of our planet and it plunges to depths of 36,201
feet. Over 3.5 billion people depend on the oceans for their primary food
supply, but it is not a bottomless resource.

Ocean health is in danger, and in dire need of our attention. Studies are
surfacing at an alarming rate, and they all concur: Our water planet is in
trouble. Overfishing, acidification, immense swirling garbage patches, poaching
and multiple other insults are turning our once brimming oceans into barren
waters.

Modern technology can help us. We can leverage new information to dive deeper
and learn more about oceans than we ever could before. This same sophistication
has also optimized fishing technology, but at what cost? We now have floating
factories that harvest fish with such precision that they leave nothing but
refuse in their wake. If we harvest everything, where will we find the next
generation of marine life?

Damage to our air, forests, and wildlife are visible, debatable. Over 90
percent of
ocean damage is invisible. Because oceans remain largely unexplored only a
handful of humans can stand witness to both the beauty and the tragedy that lies
beneath the waves. We must recognize these limits to our valuable resource, or
nothing will remain.

As we shift our attention to Copenhagen and to the issue of Global Warming,
we should consider the 71% of the planet that lies unseen. The increased CO2
levels in our atmosphere are causing our oceans to become more acidic. If we
allow this trend to continue, the oceans will soon become inhospitable to most
life.

Plastic and excess packaging is also beginning to take its toll on the sea.
“Biodegradable plastics” break down into smaller pieces, even to large
molecules, but then the synthetic material floats in the ocean, unable to join
the carbon cycle of life. This material is accumulating in the center of our
oceans, known as gyres, most notably in the North Pacific. The plastic particles
mimic estrogen and have begun to work their way up the food chain as small
marine animals ingest them. Subsequently, larger fish that have fed on a diet
high in these plastics are finding their way to market.

As our fishing methods have advanced and as global demand has increased, we
have fished our oceans to the brink. Fisheries along the California Coast are
closing. Cod in the North Atlantic are gone. Unfortunately, these are only two
of the many worldwide scenarios. Orphaned longlines, uncontrolled poaching even
in the few protected areas we have set aside, trawling that rips up the entire
ocean floor for the harvest of a few shrimp—this is all irresponsible behavior.
If we continue with our current practices, we may not be affected in our
lifetime. Our children, however, will look back at this generation and blame us
for mass extinction, global starvation, and upheaval.

Without healthy oceans, our entire planet will become sick. The ocean will
continue to decline if we do not do something. We need to act now, or the oceans
we know today will cease to exist tomorrow.

This post was written by Georgienne Bradley, the Executive Director of the
Imaging Foundation. Georgienne was one of the first people to document shark
finning when, in 1981, she was scouting stories to The Cousteau Society. Imaging
Foundation knows Our Oceans Need Help Now! Whales, dolphin, sharks, and all sea
life require a delicate balance to survive. IF uses images and media to educate,
IMPACT, and call us all to action. It's your ocean! Do something about it!

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